Man would not be the finest creature in the world if he were not too fine for it.

Ignorant men raise questions that wise men answered a thousand years ago.

Nature! We are enveloped and embraced by her, incapable of emerging from her and incapable of entering her more deeply. Unbidden and unwarned, she receives us into the circuits of her dance, drifting onward with us herself, until we grow tired and drop from her arms.

Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.

Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whatever you say to them they translate into their own language and forthwith it is something entirely different.

In praising or loving a child, we love and praise not that which is, but that which we hope for.

Everything great and intelligent is in the minority